[OpenAFS-announce] OpenAFS 1.5.15 release available

[Derrick J Brashear]

The OpenAFS Gatekeepers announce the availability of OpenAFS
version 1.5.15.  Source files and available binaries can be
accessed via the web at:

      http://www.openafs.org/release/openafs-1.5.15.html

or via AFS at:

      UNIX: /afs/grand.central.org/software/openafs/1.5.15/
      UNC:  \\afs\grand.central.org\software\openafs\1.5.15\


Microsoft Windows:
------------------
OpenAFS 1.5.15 is the recommended production ready release for Microsoft
Windows users supporting all Microsoft Windows operating systems from
Windows 2000 to Windows Vista including both 32-bit and 64-bit
architectures.

IMPORTANT: All users are recommended to upgrade to 1.5.15 in order to
address a serious error that will result in data corruption.  If the
network connectivity to the file server is lost while background write
operations have been queued, the writes will not succeed and that data
will not be written to the file server.  This leaves a hole in the file
filled with NULs.    This bug is present in all previous OpenAFS for
Windows releases and IBM Windows AFS releases prior to 3.6 2.59.

Other significant changes:

     * "out of volumes" and "out of buffers" panic conditions have been
       addressed
     * applications that attempt to open the Freelance root.afs directory
       as a read-write object no longer cause the AFS client service to
       use 100% of a single CPU
     * SMB file deletion access control issues have been addressed
     * drop-down boxes in the Network Identity Manager AFS plug-in now
       drop-down
     * the drive mapping list boxes in afscreds.exe and afs_control.exe
       are now fixed
     * improved cache performance for large numbers of files and
       directories
     * improved cache performance for file data written to AFS.  Each
       subsequent data store operation does not necessarily invalidate
       the status of previously cached data buffers.
     * improved compatibility with Microsoft Office applications.   Word,
       PowerPoint, and Excel will now happily open a file from a
       directory with only Read and Lookup privileges in read-only mode.

Known issues:

     * Beta versions of the Network Identity Manager AFS plug-in must be
       uninstalled prior to the installation of OpenAFS 1.5.15
     * Attempts to remove a directory containing files will fail with the
       wrong error code.  (To be fixed in 1.5.16)
     * Windows Vista does not support the old WinHelp file format used by
       afscreds.exe and afs_control.exe.
     * On Windows Vista, afscreds.exe and afs_config.exe are not User
       Account Control (UAC) compatible and must be "Run as
       Administrator" in order to modify the AFS Client Configuration or
       start/stop the AFS client service.

Please visit http://www.openafs.org/windows.html for up to date
information on the status of the OpenAFS for Windows client.

Linux:
------
* build system fixes
* system call table hooking improved for amd64

All UNIX platforms:
-------------------
* lock tracking support has been fixed (since 1.5.14)
* vlserver down checking has been fixed (since 1.5.14)

All platforms:
--------------
* Unix domain socket can be used for fileserver-volserver communication
   (this is a configure-time option).

Please assist the gatekeepers by deploying this release and providing
positive or negative feedback. Bug reports should be filed to
openafs-bugs@openafs.org .  Reports of success should be sent to 
openafs-info@openafs.org .

Derrick Brashear
for the OpenAFS Gatekeepers